While gap years have been around for decades in other parts of the world, the concept of taking a year off between high school and college is a fairly new one to American students. Most of us who knew we were college bound spent our junior and senior years of high school jumping through the requisite hoops: SAT's, college prep courses, applications, and interviews, all with the goal of graduating in June and heading off to college in September.
But what if you don't know you're college bound? What if you still don't have a clue about what you want to spend your life doing, despite your guidance counselor's best efforts? What if you're burnt out on school and want a break to clear your head? What if you need to earn money so that you can lighten or even eliminate your school loan debt load? What if you want a bit of life experience before heading into the hallowed halls that own your four years of undergrad study?
Then a gap year just may be the best thing you choose to do next year.
We're speaking from personal experience. While we recently launched our second son to college, he spent a year working and praying about what he wanted to do with the rest of his life. Two jobs taught him what he didn't want to spend the rest of his life doing, while one gave him the impetus to embark on a nursing career, finding a college that would be a good fit for his studies.
That gap year also gave him the opportunity to do some traveling, strengthen relationships with friends who stayed local, and learn what he really valued most. In short, he grew up.
I crowd-sourced about gap years on my Facebook page and received some insightful comments from people all over the country who had done a gap year of some sort or other. Not one of them had a negative take on the time they spent doing something other than schooling. Here are a few:
